Chapter[ X. Review of the Major League Baseball Joint Drug Prevention and
Treatment Program ]
Section[ C. 1. Alleged Advance Notice of 2003 Survey Testing ]
1. Alleged Advance Notice of 2003 Survey Testing
In an article published on October 16, 2004, Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-
Wada of the San Francisco Chronicle reported statements from a surreptitious recording of a
558 Memorandum from Jennifer R. Gefsky to Robert D. Manfred, Jr. Re: 2006 Medical/
Drug Testing Budget, dated Oct. 3, 2005, at 1.
278
conversation reportedly between Greg Anderson and an unidentified person; the authors repeated
those statements in Game of Shadows.559
According to the article, a voice identified by an unnamed source to be
Anderson’s is heard on the tape stating:
“We know when they’re going to do it,” he would say. “See, the lab that does this stuff is the lab that does . . .” His voice trailed off for a moment. “I’ll know like a week in advance or two weeks in advance before they’re going to do it,” Anderson continued. “But it’s going to be either at the end
of May or beginning of June, right before the All-Star break definitely. So . . . after the All-Star break, we’re like . . . clear.”560
Fainaru-Wada and Williams refused to talk with me, and I could not obtain a copy
of the complete recording or otherwise confirm that Anderson made these statements.561 I also
could not confirm that the statements were made “early in the 2003 season,” as the authors
reported. However, records that we obtained from the contractor who administered his tests
show that Bonds was tested on May 28 and June 4, 2003. Therefore, if the report of this
conversation is accurate Anderson correctly predicted the dates of testing, at least for his client
Barry Bonds.
Rob Manfred said he learned of these allegations from the original Chronicle
report in October 2004.562 In response, Manfred and representatives of the Players Association
asked CDT to investigate the allegations. According to Manfred, CDT did investigate the matter
and found no evidence that any CDT employee had been the source of advance notice. CDT
559 Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada, Bonds Used Steroids in 2003, Trainer Says
on Secret Recording, S.F. Chron., Oct. 16, 2004, at A1.
560 Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada, Game of Shadows 144 (Gotham Books
2006).
561 On July 25, 2007, ESPN broadcasted what was reported to be a portion of the
recording, but the excerpt it played did not include the statements quoted above.
562 Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada, Bonds Used Steroids in 2003, Trainer Says
on Secret Recording, S.F. Chron., Oct. 16, 2004, at A1.
279
explained in a conference call with Manfred and a Players Association representative that its
collectors received only two days advance notice of when a test would occur and could not have
been the source of inside information a week or two in advance of testing. While not “100%
satisfied” with CDT’s investigation, Manfred concluded that CDT “had a handle on what was
going on.”
My staff interviewed the former CDT contractor who collected samples provided
by Barry Bonds in 2003, and the CDT senior sports program manager who selected the players
and scheduled the collection. Both of those witnesses denied that Greg Anderson was, or could
have been, tipped off in advance of the drug tests administered to Barry Bonds in 2003.
The collector produced faxes from CDT dated May 27 and June 3, 2003,
respectively, which advised him of the collections he was to perform of eight Giants players,
including Barry Bonds, at PacBell Park the day following his receipt of each fax. He said in his
interview that these faxes were the first notice he received that he was to conduct the tests.
The notice to the collector and the players names were provided by the program
manager, who said in her interview that she did not select the names of the players to be tested
until the day before their tests. She also said that the collector was provided notice of the date
and location of the test (but not the team or players to be tested) up to one or two weeks before
the test date. She added that Quest Diagnostics, Inc., which analyzed all test samples collected
during 2003 testing, did not receive notice of the players who would be tested. Its role was
limited to analyzing samples after they were collected.
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